The progress in the fields of computers and communications have reached a point where they can offer an increased competitive advantage for companies also within more mature technical fields, such as bearings and seals.
The knowledge contents of products and procedures related to these products have increased during the last decade. Even though the basic principles of today's bearings and seals in some cases are almost 100 years old, the knowledge involved with today's bearings, rings and seals has increased in importance.
As a result of the growing knowledge in the field of bearings and seals during recent years, products, their use and application have become more differentiated and complex. Also the knowledge of designing technical solutions incorporating bearings and/or seals in other products has become increasingly important during recent years. An example of knowledge related to a technical solution is knowing what specific sealing system to use in a specific application and what bearings not to use. Using non-optimum sealing systems increases the likelihood of malfunction or at least a shortened machine life.
Superior manufacturers of bearings and seals have noticed the quality of offering supporting knowledge to customers, potential customers, and technical staff. The increased knowledge contents in this field have lead to an increased need of conveying information that a customer can use as support. For instance the risk of a customer selecting a non-optimum product component or application of a product has increased due to the increased knowledge contents that has to be associated with the modern products today in the bearings and seals industry. Today additional support is in some cases necessary. Otherwise the customer is at risk of a lower performance of an application of a sealing system.
More specifically, off road machinery in mining and construction requires today 10,000 hours, or more, of maintenance-free operating time for the hydraulic cylinders that are used. Offering this amount of maintenance-free operating time is difficult to reach for suppliers of hydraulic cylinders and their components included. Therefore, the hydraulic cylinders are one of the most critical parts of such mobile equipment and the seals and the bearings are the weakest components in a hydraulic cylinder.
About 75% of all complaints concern leakage, mainly caused by damaged seals and sometimes also by bad welding. The lifetime for a bearing is usually strongly decreased by the encroachment of contaminants into the bearing with damage and high down time costs as a result.
Recent knowledge indicates that it is not the choice of the design of the individual seal, wiper, guide ring or bearing which provides the maintenance-free applications, maintenance-free operating times exceeding 10,000 hours, but it is the distinct balance in function between rod/piston sealing and guiding elements, as well as the right choice of rod end/bearings that increase the number of maintenance-free hours. This implies a holistic view of the design process of the sealing system of a hydraulic system instead of an analytical view construing the design process as a number, or sequence, of sub problems.
Thus, today when a sealing system of hydraulic cylinders is designed, a holistic view is normally not used. This may result in poor choices by the designer of the design of the combination of seals, wiper, guide rings and bearings if the distinct balance in function between rod/piston sealing and guiding elements, as well as the right choice of rod end/bearings, will not be achieved.
An indistinct balance may lead to a number of disadvantages of the hydraulic cylinder:                1) Limited maintenance-free operating lifetime of the hydraulic cylinder.        2) Decreased security of the sealing system of the hydraulic cylinder, since a poorly designed sealing system of a hydraulic system may lead to a collapse of the hydraulic cylinder.        3) Limited duty ability of the hydraulic cylinder.        
A drawback of the design process today is that the information that is necessary can primarily be found only in printed material, such as manuals and product catalogues. This may make searching for information of for instance a specific seal, tedious. There is also an uncertainty aspect since there is a risk of mistakes when looking in printed material and transferring the information into the design. This may lead to wrong data being included in the design. For instance there is a risk that a seal which is not suited for a specific kind of duty will be wrongly included in the design by the designer.
Another drawback of the design process of sealing systems involves the limited possibilities of grasping the big picture of the design process. The big picture is considered important especially in the early phase of the design process.
Yet another drawback of the design process involves the limited possibilities of interacting with the production/mounting process. Today, it is not always easy for production/mounting personnel to obtain clear instructions from drawings provided by the designer.